Languages Of The World

Languages of the world

Arabic (اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ)

Basic facts

Number of native speakers: 310 million

Official language: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, (Palestine), Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania (Zanzibar), Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, (Western Sahara), African Union, Arab League, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, United Nations

Recognized minority language: Brunei, Cyprus, Eritrea, Indonesia, Israel, Mali, Niger, Pakistan, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain (Ceuta, Melilla)

Language of diaspora: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Honduras, Iran, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela

Script: Arabic, 28 letters

Grammatical cases: 3

Linguistic typology: fusional, SVO/VSO

Language family: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, West Semitic, Central Semitic, North Arabian

Number of dialects: 9 main groups

History

1st millennium BCE-7th century CE - Old Arabic

512 - earliest document in Arabic

7th-9th centuries - Classical Arabic

11th century - creation of the present form (Naskh) of the script

19th-20th centuries - Nahda (Arab Renaissance)

Writing system and pronunciation

These are the letters that make up the script: ي و ه ن م ل ك ق ف غ ع ظ ط ض  ص ش س ز ر ذ د خ ح ج ث ت ب ا.

Both printed and written Arabic are cursive, as most letters within a word are connected to the adjacent ones. Therefore, each letter can have four different forms depending on its position in a word.

Diacritics are used only in the Qur’an, religious texts, classical poetry, children’s books, and textbooks for learners.

Words cannot begin with a vowel, so initial vowels are always preceded by a glottal stop.

Grammar

Nouns have two genders (masculine and feminine), three numbers (singular, dual, and plural), and three cases (nominative, genitive, and accusative). They are also marked for definiteness and indefiniteness.

Arabic has a root-and-pattern morphology: a root consists of a set of consonants (usually three), which are fitted into a discontinuous pattern to form words.

Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, and jussive), person, number, and gender. There are two major paradigms (past and non-past), which represent a combination of tense and aspect.

Dialects

Standard Arabic can be divided into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The first one is the language found in the Qur’an, while MSA is used in academia, print and mass media, and legislation. The grammar described in this post is that of MSA.

Spoken Arabic can be divided into nine main dialect groups: North African Arabic, spoken in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia; Hassaniya Arabic in Mauritania; Egyptian Arabic; Levantine Arabic, spoken in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria; Iraqi Arabic; Gulf Arabic, spoken in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE; Hejazi Arabic in western Saudi Arabia; Najdi Arabic in central Saudi Arabia, and Yemeni Arabic in Yemen and southwestern Saudi Arabia.

Differences between the dialects of the Middle East are small enough to enable speakers to understand each other. However, North African Arabic varies considerably from the rest of the dialects. Dialects mainly differ in phonology, grammar, and vocabulary.